Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

rcrsn51 · Updated 2012-06-07

Update: PDF support returns to Version 2.3. Some outstanding issues have been resolved, including the ability to scan an A4 document into an A4 PDF file. To do this, you will need the peasyscan_pdf_plugin-1.0.pet posted below. Then read the section on configuration files.

Update: Version 2.2 has two new configuration file settings to give you more control over Auto scanning. See the additional notes at the end of this post.

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Peasyscan is a light-weight alternative to the Xsane image scanner program. It uses the same backend tools as Xsane, but with a simpler user interface.

Peasyscan scans into PNG, JPG or PDF files, and can perform OCR using Tesseract. See the post farther down this thread.

The installer adds a menu entry under Graphic. To make a desktop shortcut, drag the peasyscan program from /usr/local/peasyscan onto the desktop. There is a matching icon in /usr/local/lib/X11/pixmaps.

See the recipe for using Peasyscan in the next post. It has been tested in Quirky, Wary, Lupu and Puppy 4.3.1.

Note: On some scanners, you may need to select Preferences > Show Advanced Options to see the scanning controls.

Also: If you start getting a "Nothing was scanned" message, click the Reset button on the main screen.

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Epson Users: Depending on the age of your unit, there are several choices for a scanner driver.

1. Older scanners may be detected by the built-in "epson2" SANE driver. Peasyscan does not always work with "epson2" but should work with the earlier "epson" driver. Open the file /etc/sane.d/dll.conf. Uncomment the line "epson" by removing the # symbol. Then comment out "epson2" by adding a #.

2. If Peasyscan still fails, install the alternate epkowa driver from here.

3. Many newer Epson units only work with the epkowa driver.

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HP Users: If you have an HP all-in-one connected to your network via Ethernet or Wifi, you already know how to install it as a remote printer. But you can also use its scanner across the network! Read the section below about configuration files.

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Automatic Document Feeder: The main Peasyscan window now has an Auto button. Before clicking it, select the file type (PNG, JPG or PDF) and the Save filename. With Auto scanning, you need only enter the document's base name. For example, if you enter "/root/work/report", the files will be saved as "report-01.png", "report-02.png", etc.

Click the Auto button. You will enter the page count and the page numbering details. If you are scanning a double-sided document in two passes, you can number the pages 1,3,5... on the first pass and 2,4,6... on the second.

You will probably want to use a configuration file with Auto scanning. Read on.

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Configuration files: Most scanners will work without a configuration file, but there are a few situations where you need one. The files are stored in the folder /usr/local/peasyscan/config. When Peasyscan starts, it searches for any configuration files and offers you a menu from which to choose. Give your configuration file a descriptive name.

The Peasyscan package includes a sample configuration file in the folder /usr/local/peasyscan.

Note: The options in your configuration file, other than URI, only apply to Auto scanning. However, If your unit doesn't have an actual ADF, you can still use the Auto button and a configuration file to preset the options for flatbed scanning, like resolution or paper size.

Here is a sample configuration file:

rcrsn51 · Posted: Wed 20 Oct 2010, 09:14 Post subject:

Here is a basic recipe for using Peasyscan:

1. Select the image format
2. Select the name of the scanned image file
3. Click Start
4. Select the scan mode and resolution
5. Click Preview
6. Click Acquire Preview
7. Select all or part of the document
8. Click Scan
9. Click Return
10. Click Save
11. Click Quit

If you start getting a "Nothing was scanned" message, click the Reset button on the main screen.

rcrsn51 · Posted: Thu 21 Oct 2010, 09:59 Post subject:

[Updated]

rcrsn51 · Posted: Fri 22 Oct 2010, 08:45 Post subject:

[Deleted]

rcrsn51 · Posted: Sat 30 Oct 2010, 16:18 Post subject:

Here's a little Flash demo of Peasyscan 1.1. Unpack the attachment and click on the peasyscan.htm file.

tubby · Joined: 24 Jan 2009 Posts: 317

And here is another one i posted some time ago.

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=59298

Laie · Joined: 20 Jan 2008 Posts: 268 Location: Germany

Is there an Optical Character Recognition program for puppy?

disciple · Posted: Mon 01 Nov 2010, 02:28 Post subject:

Tesseract is the best OCR engine.
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=234066
I also posted some other scripts and things there that you might find useful.

Auriza also posted Tesseract 2.04 at http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=51507
I don't know whether that package was compiled with or without libtiff.

It is really about time I packaged Tesseract 3 and the latest ocropus...

rcrsn51 · Added 2012-11-12

Peasyscan 1.3 now has OCR capability using Tesseract. Download Tesseract from here. You need both PETs.

[Update] Attached below are the PETs for Tesseract 3. It is a larger package than 2.04 and is somewhat slower, but can process text in columns.

If you need another language, go here and download a "trained data" package. Unzip it and copy the file to the folder /usr/share/tessdata.

[Update] Attached below is Tesseract 3.01, which now supports Arabic, Hindi, and Thai. However this version ONLY works with newer Puppies, like Lupu, Slacko and Precise. It does NOT work with Wary. You can continue to use the v3.00 language packages.

[Update] Here is a little tool named pic2txt. It uses Tesseract OCR to convert graphic files to text. You can run it from the command line or from the Graphic menu.

For example, running "pic2txt mydoc.jpg" creates a new file called "mydoc.txt".

OCR requires fairly high resolution images to be successful. Photographing a document with your cellphone camera, then running it through OCR may not work. If this works for you, I would be interested in hearing the details.

cryder · Joined: 04 Nov 2010 Posts: 1

Yay, finally Smile

Thanks for the link, I've been waiting for quite some time to give Tesseract a shot.

Béèm · Posted: Fri 26 Nov 2010, 05:22 Post subject: Peasyscan 1.3

I don't know if this is the correct place to report problems, but here I go.
My printer is an Epson Stylus Photo RX600
I use Lucid 511.
I can scan with xsane.

With peasy, I get the panel to change color and to preview or scan.
The title bar indicates my scanner device.
I get an error on preview that nothing is scanned.

Thus I tried via the console:

rcrsn51 · Posted: Fri 26 Nov 2010, 08:46 Post subject:

Which scanner driver, if any, did you install? Are you using the epkowa backend from here or are you using one of the built-in Epson backends that comes with Sane?

Béèm · Posted: Fri 26 Nov 2010, 11:11 Post subject:

I didn't install anything extra, so I suppose the one of xsane in Lucid 511 is used. I will have to check on the other machine with the scanner.

rcrsn51 · Posted: Fri 26 Nov 2010, 11:14 Post subject:

In that case, could you please install the epkowa backend from the above link? It's the epkowa-2.26.0.pet at the end of the thread. Then try Peasyscan again.

You may need to go into the file /etc/sane.d/dll.conf and comment out the epson and epson2 entries.

Béèm · Posted: Fri 26 Nov 2010, 12:07 Post subject: [SOLVED]

Indeed I got the epson2:libusb:001:003
The epkowa pet is installed and I have the choice no between the epson and the epkowa.
I can scan now, but there must be e temp file created somewhere as my save file is almost 0 now.

I saw in the same thread the iscan pet and remember now we had a discussion about it.

Thanks for the help.